BIKE: West Medford - Oak Grove Cemetary
Went on a little scouting ride to parts of West Medford. I'd be out there before with Bill and James a while ago on a spontaneous bicycling excursion. We got lost, and it started to rain, and there was bike trouble along the way. It was something of an adventure.
I think that's why I was apprehensive about going out on the route on my own. Even though I've gotten lost in that area before (how I found Winchester for myself). It's seemed like a "risky" ride. It really isn't but anyway, I went to expand my sphere out that way a bit. We'd passed the Oak Grove Cemetery that day, but didn't go in. I decided to check it out. It's about half the size of Mt. Auburn Cemetery (which is still huge), and doesn't have all the funerary features. It does have a prominent portion devoted to military veterans.
The Korean War area is only about half-full. Perhaps that's forward thinking. The World War II portion fits, and is everything you would expect complete with a massive, beautiful statue. Both these sections are isolated and central. I checked a nearby map to see where the Vietnam War veterans are. They are comingled with the Persian Gulf War veterans, and both are off to the side, in a cramped section that looks annexed from the civilian graves. It seems to me that the cemetery did not anticipate the wars, nor allocate them their own unique places in the same way as for the earlier wars.
I did not see any area clearly signed for conflicts more recent or specific than the Gulf War.
The memorial graves were all well-tended and adorned. I got choked up about it and had to move along. I didn't have a particular destination in mind, but I knew that vaguely forward I'd hit the Charles River eventually, leftward I'd hit the Mystic Valley Parkway eventually, rightward... after along long days ride, I'd hit Burlington/I-95, and rearward was home.
I turned left because it seemed like the less complicated way to go and eventually made my way back to a familiar intersection and then home. Only took about an hour. I only see now that when I map the trip, that I was very close to the Upper Mystic Lake. So I'll add that loop, next time
Kit tells me when I returned that it's Wednesday, not Thursday. And so I am losing days :P
Today's Route. The elevation peaked at the cemetery, which really was kinda hilly, actually. *Huff huff*.
I think that's why I was apprehensive about going out on the route on my own. Even though I've gotten lost in that area before (how I found Winchester for myself). It's seemed like a "risky" ride. It really isn't but anyway, I went to expand my sphere out that way a bit. We'd passed the Oak Grove Cemetery that day, but didn't go in. I decided to check it out. It's about half the size of Mt. Auburn Cemetery (which is still huge), and doesn't have all the funerary features. It does have a prominent portion devoted to military veterans.
The Korean War area is only about half-full. Perhaps that's forward thinking. The World War II portion fits, and is everything you would expect complete with a massive, beautiful statue. Both these sections are isolated and central. I checked a nearby map to see where the Vietnam War veterans are. They are comingled with the Persian Gulf War veterans, and both are off to the side, in a cramped section that looks annexed from the civilian graves. It seems to me that the cemetery did not anticipate the wars, nor allocate them their own unique places in the same way as for the earlier wars.
I did not see any area clearly signed for conflicts more recent or specific than the Gulf War.
The memorial graves were all well-tended and adorned. I got choked up about it and had to move along. I didn't have a particular destination in mind, but I knew that vaguely forward I'd hit the Charles River eventually, leftward I'd hit the Mystic Valley Parkway eventually, rightward... after along long days ride, I'd hit Burlington/I-95, and rearward was home.
I turned left because it seemed like the less complicated way to go and eventually made my way back to a familiar intersection and then home. Only took about an hour. I only see now that when I map the trip, that I was very close to the Upper Mystic Lake. So I'll add that loop, next time
Kit tells me when I returned that it's Wednesday, not Thursday. And so I am losing days :P
Today's Route. The elevation peaked at the cemetery, which really was kinda hilly, actually. *Huff huff*.